Not a river in Egypt

As a condition of settling cases, the SEC typically bars alleged wrongdoers from later claiming innocence. This arguably violates free-speech protections. If a lawsuit challenging it succeeds, the financial regulator may finally have to start – gasp! – proving its charges.

Context News

A federal lawsuit filed on Jan. 9 in Washington, D.C. seeks to eliminate a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulation prohibiting defendants that settle cases from later denying they did anything wrong. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues in the suit that the so-called gag rule violates the constitutional right to free speech.